Gerard Baden-Clay says he started affair because 'I just wanted sex'

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/30/gerard-baden-clay-affair-trial

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Accused killer Gerard Baden-Clay has said a desire for sex drove him to have an affair with a former colleague.

The 43-year-old, who is on trial for the murder of his wife Allison, tearfully told a Brisbane court how he was driven to start the affair after intimacy vanished from his marriage.

Baden-Clay said his sex life with his wife was "non-existent", and he consequently began an affair with a former colleague in the same year his third daughter was born.

He told the supreme court his relationship with Allison was deteriorating in the mid-2000s.

By 2005 she was taking anti-depressants and the side-effects caused her to gain weight and lose her libido.

The real estate agent said his formerly energetic and sociable wife changed. "She became much more withdrawn through that period and she was just like a sort of a blurrier image of herself," he said.

When he got home from work she often went straight to bed while he cared for their two young daughters.

He said Allison had really wanted a third child, a son, to continue the Baden-Clay name but he didn't want another child because of the toll it might take on her.

In 2006 he said he began an affair with a former colleague from real estate agency Raine and Horne in Kenmore.

"I just wanted sex," he said through tears. "Allison and I hadn't had any sort of physical intimacy for years. It's not an excuse but that's why."

Baden-Clay said the affair ended mutually after about a month because he "felt really bad about it".

In September that year the couple's third daughter was born. Allison was initially shocked that it was not a boy but soon fell in love with the baby, he said.

Baden-Clay has pleaded not guilty to murder.

The trial continues.